Paris: In Case You Missed It (Like I Did, Sort Of)

By Andrew Parker

The timing of this year’s Paris Air Show coincided with the week the July issue went to press, so unfortunately I was unable to join the rest of the Rotor & Wing team – including International Bureau Chief Andrew Drwiega and Thierry Dubois, contributing editor – at the massive aviation tradeshow at Le Bourget airport in France.

But I can’t complain, because unlike the casual enthusiast, I had the chance to see Paris – at least the action on the helicopter side of things – daily through images and stories that are available online at www.rotorandwing.com.

Some of the highlights include:

• Bell partnering with Turbomeca for the first time on a new “short light single,” or SLS (see story on page 14);

• AgustaWestland showing its Project Zero electric tiltrotor to the public for the first time;

• Russian Helicopters providing an update on international expansion of the Kamov Ka-52 Alligator;

• Eurocopter X3’s test pilot and flight test engineer sharing their story about going over the helicopter speed record as the technology demonstrator nears the end of its brief life;

• Sikorsky and Boeing collaborating – adding to their recent Future Vertical Lift partnership – to establish a joint venture to bid for U.S. foreign military sales (FMS) contracts in Saudi Arabia;

• CAE updating its global expansion efforts to include the first NH-90 simulator for the Australia Army and Navy obtaining Level D certification; and

• The U.S. Army purchasing 30 additional Mi-17V5s from Rosoboronexport (the Russian Helicopters subsidiary). The Mi-17s are intended for the Afghan Army.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a selection of some the eye-catching images from Paris stories that didn’t make it into this issue of Rotor & Wing. Read the stories online at www.rotorandwing.com, visit www.aviationtoday.com/paris2013 for more photos and videos from the event, and keep an eye out for more Paris coverage in next month’s print edition.

If you tend to like reading about the fixed-wing side of things, visit our umbrella Aviation Today website – www.aviationtoday.com – along with Rotor & Wing sister publication, Avionics Magazine (online at www.avionicstoday.com).